Guitar Center employee and budding country singer Marie Wise-Hawkins is now $20,000 richer after the Los Angeles-based country singer won first-place in the third annual Land the Big Gig national talent search competition, at Summerfest's Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard stage early Thursday evening.

"This is so incredible, it's a dream come true," the 25-year-old said moments after the evening's host, Milwaukee native and American Idol season eight finalist Danny Gokey, proclaimed her the winner. "Now we can record an album and get on the road. This gives us the opportunity to move forward."

Wise-Hawkins' opponents--pop punk band Doozey, and literal band of brothers Eagle Trace--had the home court advantage. Doozey is from Appleton, Trace from New Berlin, and both bands naturally brought the most fans (a couple hundred attended in total).

But Wise-Hawkins, backed by a five-piece band, went into her five-song set with energy, charm and confidence. When keyboardist Trevor Steer's solos succumbed to nasty speaker static, Wise-Hawkins didn't flinch, and her original "Take Me Down" may have been the best song of the competition, sounding like the lovechild of a vintage country tune and Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child 'O Mine." In the end, the crowd was cheering just as loudly for the out-of-towner.

"Coming from California, you were in hostile territory," one of the competition's judges, Summerfest's Vice President of Entertainment Bob Babisch, told the band after its set. "But you won over the crowd. From the first song, you grabbed them by the throat and shook them up."

The judges--which also included Gokey, former Milwaukee resident and season 10 "Idol" finalist Naima Adedapo, and Dave Willems, co-founder of the Mile of Music festival in Appleton--awarded Doozey the second place, $5,000 prize, with Trace coming in third and taking away $2,500.

More than 67,000 votes were cast in the online competition, helping to narrow down a pool of artists who submitted video auditions to three finalists. The finalists will also receive studio time and songwriting and mentoring services from Grafton-based music business K-Nation Entertainment (KNE), and will perform again on the KNE New Music Stage at Summerfest Friday afternoon.